Writing from the abyss, she clings resolutely to facts ... A kind of manual on how to write honestly about the death of loved ones. Throughout, Li refreshingly refuses to indulge in the tired metaphorical thinking that death often invites ... Li’s style, honed over decades, has never been more distilled. Appropriately for a book that purports to stenograph only her thoughts, she writes in a simple, pared-back language ... Elicits many difficult feelings. I had to put it down at several places before I found myself able to return to it. Yet Li’s brutal lucidity — her refusal to burnish her thoughts and sentiments to a high sheen — is its own form of ethical commitment.
Li’s Spock-like, calm approach to life’s miseries evokes the stoics ... A more logical, philosophical affair ... What makes Nature so powerful and so frustrating at the same time — radical acceptance means accepting so much cruelty that we inflict on ourselves and others.
Intimate ... Li recounts both boys’ lives with palpable love and paints complex, distinct portraits of each ... She also details...her own battle with depression, which she recalls with wrenching immediacy ... Readers who’ve dealt with their own tragedies will find comfort and understanding here.
Though elegantly written and deeply thought through, Li’s book makes for emotionally difficult reading, offering little comfort for those who may be experiencing similar travails ... As bleak as winter fog at dusk, suggesting that one goes on after tragedy only because there’s nothing else one can do.
